What makes an MVP in basketball?

On Monday, I spotted the tendencies of NBA MVP voters. The MVP of the league is one who:

• Is on a team that won a lot of games
• Played in all or nearly all of those games
• Has a high Player Efficiency Rating (PER)

As a shortcut, I’d vote the same way, and even created Wilson’s Simple NBA MVP Formula. But while it’s accurate, something’s missing. The PER measures how well a player plays in losses as well as wins.